overhear

As expats living in Melbourne, my partner's employer pays for 1 home visit back to the US each year. I'd like to take advantage of our return trip from NYC to Melbourne to make a 2-3 day stopover. Apparently the company doesn't mind if the total ticket price is within the range of that of a r/t economy ticket (under about $3000 AUD or $2600 AUD).

Sounds easy enough, but how to find a stopover that doesn't raise the ticket price beyond our limit? Lots of r/t flights on kayak show layovers, but when I reprice those flights as multiple destination to extend the layover to 48 hours, the fares jump up.

We're pretty flexible but destinations that seem to make sense for short stays are BKK, SIN, and NAN. We've been to Hong Kong, and Abu Dhabi so we'd rather get to other parts of Asia on this trip.

I've been at this for days and just can't come up with anything. I'd be very grateful for any advice!

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

If you can find the necessary frequent-flyer award seats, I would explore whether the employer will reimburse the cost of purchasing the necessary miles from one or more frequent-flyer programs (AA, AS, UA, US, e.g.)

overhear

Unfortunately, I think we'll have to go with the most straight-forward option and just ask for reimbursement for tickets. They're understanding but we really don't want to over-step.

howtofreetravel

Hope they won't be upset if they see a stopover

overhear

We already asked. They're okay with the stopover. They just want the ticket to be in the typical price range for a r/t fare.

PbodyPhoto

Nest a MEL-NAN-MEL and a NAN-LAX-JFK-LAX-NAN for a possibly better price.

overhear

Pbody - Would you mind explaining what you mean by nesting?

dukerau

Pbody is saying to book two round trips, with one "nested" inside the other. For example (arbitrary dates):
MEL-NAN-MEL 1/5 depart, 2/1 return
NAN-JFK-NAN 1/5 depart, 1/30 return

The risk of doing this is that you are on your own making the connections in NAN from one itinerary to the other. If you miss the next flight, the airline is under no obligation to accommodate you. You would need to add a decent buffer time both ways in NAN.

But NAN isn't Asia, so I don't see how this accomplishes what you want. Unless you want to go to Fiji instead of Asia.

MSPeconomist

Can you just document what the ticket would have cost without the stopover and request reimbursement for that amount, with you paying any excess for the ticket you want?

At one point, SQ was encouraging stopovers in SIN, IIRC with a hotel package program. This might be of interest. Also, some carriers allow stopovers only along their legal routes, so check on using SQ to stop in SIN, Thai to stop in BKK, etc.

overhear

Thanks for the explanation. Though we've been focused on Asia, NAN or other S.Pacific destinations would also be of interest. But unfortunately I can't do anything out of the ordinary in terms of ticketing.

I'd hoped that there might be a carrier that offered something like Iceland Air's stopover deal, which allows a stopover in Reykjavik for 1-5 days for just a small additional charge over the r/t economy fare.

Along those lines, I did check into SQ's deal. Their hotel deal is great, but the fare jumped from $2500 to $3700 when I tried booking as a multiple destination ticket to extend our stay in Singapore for more than 5 hours. I actually called them to see if they offered a fare option that had to be requested by phone. Turns out that they don't have an economy class seat available during that period.